Switch Vs Chassis

If you’ve crossed the point where you need more than 48 ports in a closet, you’ve exceeded the capacity of the small fixed configuration switches. Should you go with Non-Stacking Switches or Stacking Switches? Does a modular chassis solution make more sense? Switch Stack vs Chassis is one of the greatest debates in IT and we do our best to give a decisive recommendation in this video

The decisions you make now are going to dictate what options you have in the future. So hopefully we're catching you before you make a purchase. Whether we’re talking about Brocade, Cisco, HP or Juniper, there are basically only three options: Non Stacking Switches, Stacking Switches, and Chassis Solutions.

We're going to cover the pro's and con's of Non Stacking Switches, Stacking Switches, and Chassis Solutions. We're also going to give you our recommendations.

Pros of Non Stacking Switches: Pay-as-you-grow, High Performance (2:1 Oversubscription)

Cons of Non Stacking Switches: Additional Cable Runs, Additional Distribution Ports, Expensive

Pros of Stacking Switches: Pay-as-you-grow, Small Physical Footprint, Convenient 110v Power

Pros of Stacking Switches: Stacking Cables, StackPower Cables, Software Complexity, Instability

Pros of Modular Switches (Chassis): Solid High Availability Features, Modular design, Supports Wide Range of Line Cards, Simple to Deploy

Cons of Modular Switches (Chassis): - Physical Space (twice the space of stacks), Expensive Power Supplies, 220v Power for PoE Solutions

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